What is the greatest tune by the MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA?
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I am a drummer, producer and educator. I talk about Jazz, Prog and Fusion and the cultural context in which music has been, and is made. And sometimes, if you are lucky, I go off on one...
As a music teacher, I used Lila's Dance as an example of what could ultimately be achieved in composition and production. A monumental feat in the studio when everyone is watching the clock. They were able to suspend time for the 6 minute length and create a new dimension. Concise and to the point, with an Indian tri-part structure. ending more or less the way it started. Understated and grand. I could go on and on about this. Thanks for choosing that one. I had an intuition that that was your only option. Just like me. Cheers, love your channel and all the great work you do for the soul of us all.
Lila's dance is truly a masterpiece. The drumming on that song is other worldly.
@@strtgtr66 Thanks for your comment. The drums are on a different plane of musical existence. Sublime delivery and articulation.
Eternity’s Breath does it for me. A great introduction to MO even though it’s from the second incarnation. It’s what got me into MO as a teenager and I still get the most thrills out of that piece, along with Lila’s Dance.
I like One Word - every member of the band gets to solo and the repeated unison lines at the end is just intense!
One word is a cover of a Tony Williams song
@@samuelbrown2147 a Lifetime song. It was issued on '45. I think John is the composer
Sheer INTENSITY!
I think the ultimate Mahavishnu track is ‘Meeting Of The Spirits’. It encapsulates all that is Mahavishnu, the first line up.
By far my favourite Mahavishnu album is ‘apocalypse’. The compositions are glorious, Narada’s drumming is incredible and I love Mike Gibbs arrangements. They were all recorded in single takes, with the band in one room and the orchestra set up in a separate room.
I like the later albums with Walden, where Mahavishnu got a bit more soulful and funky.
I like your humility. Instead of saying "the best" like you know it all, you say "my favourite".
McLaughlin might agree with your choice of Meeting of the Spirits. This piece opened pretty much every show the MO ever played!
Agree, Meeting of the Spirits is where it all began
It was mind bending for me to hear as a 16yo drummer.
Apocalypse is really underrated. What Ponty plays is awwesome
Eternity's Breath part 1. The power of the guitar/strings unison line emerging from the heaviness while Walden torments the time continuum is maximum.
Life changing...so much so that it sent me on a quest and now I am friends with Narada!!! That is the power of that tune
"A Lotus On Irish Streams" from that first album is a really beautiful piece. Just John on acoustic guitar, Jan on piano and Jerry's violin. The music breathes in a way unusual for the normally frenetic band.
The guitar credenza in Sister Andrea is some super human spine tingling stuff. We’re fortunate it was recorded
It’s always been the guitar passage which impressed me most by JMc
Go to Wolfgangs Vault and listen to all of the 50 live concerts they have there. Insane stuff.
McLaughlin on that 12 string solo in the middle (Jan Hammer playing chords softly in support)...McLaughlin is RAW in certain notes. Screaming and bending the top E pair. You get some odd vibration phenomena happening when you try to bend the unison top E's. There's a dissonant pulse as the two top E's don't bend in exactly the same way. Uniquely expressive. The B string pair is also unison. Then he finds himself on the octave G's and that Gibson rings like a bell.
I have always pined for an electric 12, be it Rickenbacker, Gibson, Ibanez Artist are beautiful old twin necks.
It is a truly blistering guitar solo in Sister Andrea.
yes, the guitar surpasses the remainder of this ordinary Jan Hammer tune
For me it's gotta be "Birds of Fire" for the chordal/compositional elements and rhythmic drive and "Thousand Island Park" or "A lotus on Irish streams" for the more intricate acoustic side.
The Noonward Race! Off the first album, "The inner mounting flame." This tune just explodes!
For me the Mahavishnu Orchestra is one of the best bands of all time, the albums are also all fantastic, Birds of Fire my favourite.
Spot on again, Andy! For me, it's Mahavishnu's VOTEB every single time. This is my favourite Jazz Rock Fusion LP and the one I always recommend to anyone wanting to check out the band for the first time. It's Mahavishhnu at their very finest.
One word for me, mind bending, the intensity and brilliance of each solo, especially Billy Cobham! ❤
Eternity's breath part 1. Simply astonishing. (It was my intro to the MO. I just couldn't believe it).
It was not my intro but the tune is on my list too.
"Hope" from "Birds Of Fire" is magnificent. ♥
I'm surprised Andy didn't mention "One Word" in the context of Tony Williams Lifetime, with the beautiful Jack Bruce vocals. Well done, regardless.
Man, I'm the greatest mahavishnu fan of this entire galaxy. This channel is gold for me. God bless you. Love your videos.
Visions Of The Emerald Beyond is also my favorite album of all time. Lila's Dance is also my favorite MO tune. John's solo on there is the single event that forever shifted my mind. I didn't know that story about Trevor Horne admiring the production of Ken Scott on this album - that is a great revelation! I am encouraged and happy that so many people place this album as their favorite of all time. Wow!
There's the world before MO and the world after MO. During the time that MO was active, the world was MO.
Many years ago I was on a John McLaughlin email list. There was a poll for the best solo of the Master and Lila's Dance was selected as the best solo. I think the runner-ups were Lady L (from Shakti) and Hymn to Hym.
I'll second that pick.
Visions of the Emerald Beyond
Lilas Dance.
I listened to Mahavishnu Orchestra
and Santana also with
Alice Coltrane Illuminations, Caravan Serai, Welcome, Borboletta, etc.
Also Where Have I Known You Before
Chick Cores especially all the Al DiMeola records.
The time signatures six six six and two.
Heavy drums.
Diatonic chromatic modal bliss.
Lila's Dance here, too!
i agree on everything here
i saw the birds of fire band in montreal when i was a teen
lilas dance is incredible indeed i just rediscover it thanks to you
Thanks Andy, Lila's Dance for me too. Ponty's playing is incredibly beautiful and McLaughlin is wonderfully intense. Superb ending too.
Great stuff, @andyedwards. You Know You Know gets my vote.
Yes! Scrolled a long time looking for this one. Don't know if I can pick one favorite but if I had to, it's You Know You Know. 🔥
Most virtuoso guitar players play set-piece licks blazingly fast strung together in a more-or-less coherent fashion. Having slowed down some of his solos to try and pick them up, I get the impression there is an intent behind every note and every space that John McLaughlin employs - no matter the speed. He is, for me, the fastest thinking and feeling guitarist out there. I am in awe of his creativity over such a long period of time.
I have played some (well, I tried) and as you start learning it you realize every little phrase is really a work of musical art, it is amazing how he does what he does. He goes way beyond what most people do, like WAY beyond...
Meeting of the Spirits was the first MO tune I heard and it changed my life. There are many favorites, but Lila's Dance is special. Amazing solo from the Master!
My fav album of theirs (and one of my all time favs in general) is Visions of the Emerald beyond. The first track in my opinion the greatest of their tunes - "Eternity's Breath" (and technically Pt 1 and 2 are still the same song ;)
The journey and power of this track is transcendent. When the voices kick in I lost it crying for the first few times I heard it.
Too beautiful.
I think my channel is bringing together those who beleive VoTEB is the greatest album of all time... I may have to do a video on this and it would be nice to get some subscribers in the video who feel the same way
Another vote here for VotEB as their greatest album! Eternity's Breath their greatest ever oeuvre.
Faz do visions of the Emerald bayond um discaço saudo desde brasil
In terms of composition, [Hymn to him] is my favorite tune.
I think it's a tremendous accomplishment, fusing western classic, jazz, rock, and Indian music.
Yes definitely.
Lila's dance must also be my favorite I support your decision!
Andy, it’s unbelievable. Visions… and Lila’s Dance my favourite album and track, but my second is You Know, You Know.
Mr Edwards it is very enlightening to hear a musician communicate so deeply their insights of such magnificent artists like McLaughlin & Holdworths , progressive music etc. thank you peace & love
The 12-string guitar solo in Sister Andrea is, for me, the most emotionally moving guitar solo I've ever heard. Still gives me the shivers.
The Sister Andrea solo is for me one of the best all times....you say it, but i think the solo is on 6 String, John plays many bendings....
@@freespiritsguitar2871 I'm happy to stand corrected but I owned a twin neck and played through distortion during my "I want to be John McLaughlin" phase. That's how a 12 string electric strung with .008 guage strings sounds. You can easily hear the octave strings at the start of the solo when he plays on the bass strings. When he bends the high E and B strings which are tuned in unison you can hear them beating slightly out of tune with each other (I love that sound). It's also really hard to bend in tune on a 12 string and you can hear that as well.....which makes it sound even better to me. Here is a clip of him playing a different version of the song. It's a very different solo but you can see he plays the 12 string and he bends lots of times. The sound is kind of similar. th-cam.com/video/yeQTbN9qRWA/w-d-xo.html
Thats insane he's playing that on the 12...I didn't realise 👍
Yip
Celestial Terrestrial Commuters from Birds of Fire. It rocks! Birds of Fire is a very close second. Being a bassist, I've sent links to One Word to all the drummers I play with as an example of the quality I expect. ;)
Me too bassist since '88! Rick Laird and Ralphe Armstrong are 2 very different very interesting bassists, huh. Rick Laird can get very strange, very abstract, very atonal in certain live MO gigs. I'm like ...uh oh...Rick Laird WUT ARE YOU DOING? Where are you going? Oh gawd please don't mess it up!!! But his tastefulness and sense of understatement always seems to win through.
Ralphe Armstrong..wow I love Ralphe Armstrong. His bass playing on Visions...oh my. Fretless. Wah wah. Just a little bit of overdrive and some snappy compression. That burbling descending run in the intro to Faith...landing on a huge F# on the low E string as McLaughlin arpeggiates that big open expansive F#m7sus4.
Rick Laird and Ralphe Armstrong. Both of them solid as anything. Both of them out of this world in their own way. I have so much to learn from both of them.
Blessings from UK.
Btw..my 4 string baby is a metallic blue custom Squier Jazz w rosewood board w dot inlays.
the bassline to Birds is dead easy.. the top end parts, all modal, not so much.
Cosmic Strut. That bass line. And everything else.
For me, it's a close call between Birds of Fire and Dance of Maya. The solo on Birds of Fire is so unhinged, yet musical. And the open line in Dance of Maya that they return to toward the end of the tune when you least expect it made me break out into cold sweats the first time I heard it.
Not an easy one, I am of an age where I could not wait for the release of Birds of Fire and imported the album. Although I bought all of the albums, my love really stems from the first two. Until recently I always felt that Birds of Fire was my favourite album but as I grow older there is an spirit and rawness about the first album which gives it an edge. Dance of the Maya is my favourite track (followed by Birds of Fire). However, I can still remember when I put Inner Mounting Flame on and heard Meeting of the Spirits and was 'blown away' and for that reason the track will also have a special place in my heart.
Amazing, You took thoughts straight out of my head. Those are my sentiments exactly!
About 50 or so years ago I was an undergrad in university, just starting to play music, and one of the guys put this Mahavishnu album on and we were blown away. It was unbelievably beautiful and intense at the same time.
Meeting Of The Spirits.
It has such an awesome but hypnotic & otherworldly riff, perfectly accompanied by Billy's drums, and encapsulates the Mahavishnu sound as a whole.
So many other great tracks of course, but Meeting Of The Spirits sets the bar right from the start (1st track, 1st album) for what is yet to come...
Thousand Island Park is worthy of mention. The guitar solo in Way Of The Pilgrim is like a mini composition.
WOTP is a masterwork which could have been a radio single record.
Strange watching this unfold, with my choice exactly
the same!
Usually, in these things people have slightly different tastes.
Totally agree with all your selection!
Was sweating on it at the end!
There needs to be a documentary about MO n it's influences on other bands n musicians. I heard interviews from Todd Rundgren to Phil Collins speaking about first hearing Mahavishnu Orchestra n the impact it had on them.
Yep, Todd Rundgren talked about how the tune "Sunburst Finish" on Utopia's "RA" record was their nod to the Mahavishnu Orchestra but then they also wanted to sing over that stuff. Insanity.
It is very significant that both songs have dance in the titles. Great video!
The real question is "what are MO's best live versions of any of their tunes?" I'd like to have their albums with all songs picked from their best live performances. You Know You know would rank very high.
Vision is a Naked Sword from the Apocalypse album gets me everytime, a totally amazing son!
certainly a contender
Same here . That funk groove toward the end is awesome and that tone he got before that groove was great.....a real soaring solo.
Visions of the emerald beyond is also my favorite album of all time...I'd probably take the two parts of Eternity's Breath, but really anything from that album is perfection so i can definitely live with Lila's Dance. If you made a channel just talking about Mahavishnu Orchestra I'd be just as addicted as I am to this channel.
The transition from Cosmic Strut to If I Could See with Gayle Moran's hauntingly beautiful voice... Sublime!
We can sit and talk MO forever....
Visions is an incredible album.
Hello from u.k.
You are 100% correct!
I will ARGUE all day long for visions being their best!
A few of us with good musical taste, get down the pub every Sunday night.
And this crops up now and again.
I’m getting, inner mounting, apocalypse, Birds!
It HAS ago be VISIONS!
I feel very strong on this, I get ganged up on!
Great comment I’ll show the lads!
Take care!
Lila's Dance or Eternity's Breath Part 2 for me. Visions of the Emerald Beyond is one of the all time greatest ❤. Love the channel thanks.
This has become my favorite TH-cam channel.
Oh man. It's just impossible. Though I smiled a wry smile in resonance with a few things you said. For example, the very special place in the heart for Visions. One particular summer 20 years ago, an acid drenched summer, my world turned upside down by MO and in particular this album. I've been playing guitar since 82, and been almost a disciple of McLaughlin for many years.
I'm sure you understand the futility of this "best of MO" undertaking? The depth of this music is beyond even a lifetime of listening. So, today you may feel that Dance of Maya is the one...tomorrow Sanctuary may grab you by the bollocks of your very soul and you'll wonder how you never truly heard it before. And honestly, don't you get the impression that most of the studio recordings are but sketches for the really out there pieces of outstanding beauty and brilliance...the live gigs.... I think the heaviest most epic most harrowing gob smacking and heart melting thing I ever heard...one of the few pieces of music that almost literally FLOORED me...Sanctuary from the Boston "75 gig.
I just don't know what I'd play as an introduction. I played Lilas Dance to a newbie once, and he giggled at the repeated horn riff near the end. Because to his ears it sounded a little dated and clichéd. With MO you just never know if it's going to hit home with a newbie. Or fly right over their head. Nevermore would I sit someone down and make them listen to a whole album. Why,? Because it's just so damn heavy and intense. I'd probably rather slip them a CD and suggest they check it out sometime when they've got space and time for something really potentially life changing. Like...just before they fall asleep for example.
I guess my go to clip for fellow music lovers who don't know MO has been...Hope/One Word the ABC gig on TH-cam. Because Billy Cobham is like thunder. And McLaughlin looks and plays like an angel. You see the look of Divine bliss and surrender of the soul on McLaughlins face and I like to think maybe people suddenly get it...?
I love that you love Visions. Oh yes.
And Miles Out. Hee hee. People wonder what's at the centre of the Milky Way. They try using telescopes and fancy equipment. Silly people. Want to know what's in the centre of the Milky Way? Inner Worlds track 2, of course. :)
Blessings from UK.
Big love and respect!
You Know You Know. A guitar players dream. Jeff Beck loves it as well.
Every time I saw him, he played You Know You Know and Stratus.
@@sealisa1398 - Excellent! I did not know about Stratus - I last saw Jeff in 1973 the year before his band toured with Maha.
I missed the live chat on this one. Mahavishnu are unbeatable. They set the benchmark. My favourite album is the Emerald. I know it's not the original classic line up but it's my favourite and my favourite track is Be Happy. I love Cosmic Strut, Lila's Dance and Eternity s Dance. It's the drums on Be Happy that are explosive.
Fantastic show, Andy. I wish I had been available for the live banter.
Totally agree with your choice 🎉 Lila’s Dance is a wonder. As one of the finalist I would of had Meeting of the Spirits. Enjoyed your musings, love Mahavishnu Orchestra.
"THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM" is another great 1 & what an anthem!What a great ,humble yet powerful title also.
Miles Out is an incredible track that shows that John McLaughlin was way out there looking for new music. But Visions is my favourite MO album and I decided to have a quick listen just now. Yes, Lila's Dance is a masterpiece and I've always loved how this album ends but if I were asked to pick a track which sums up the spirit of the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Be Happy would be as good as any. It's pure joy at 100 mph.
My favourite 3 MO albums are the same, in order of BOF, VOTEB, and IMF. So many great songs on each of these albums. Hard to pick a best, but I have always been blown away by the title track on Birds of Fire. It was the first MO album I bought, and hearing that track as the opening track opened a new world, and is such a great introduction to what is to come on the rest of the album.
John told the interviewer, after reveling in his Hendrix stories, "I wouldn't be who I am without Jimi and B.B. King". In 1970 Mirslav Vitous (sp), bass player for Joe Zawinal, called John and asked him to join Mirslav's new band - Weather Report. John declined as he had a lot to say in a Mahavishnu way. I saw Weather Report after playing Sweetnighter a thousand times - Whiskey au Go Go, 1974, yes they blew the house down. Mirslav played bass. John was one year older than me. Still is.
Some of the MO pieces - the dance of Maya - where played by the Tony Williams lifetime a few years before, some with the Devotion band
@@jpsmaj3235 - the Lifetime was a superb band though a bit fast, I gave up "shredding" in the nineties and developed several guitar techniques that focus on melody, such as the Django Technique - fretting hand uses two fingers only (like Django) - index and middle, to force the muscles to follow melody. It works, fretters, try it. Shredding has zero to do with melody, mostly. I play Dance of the Maya in my own way which is superb. Thank you. Birds O' Fire!.
BTW, the one tour the Visions band did absolutely blew my mind… string quartet, horn section, John Luc Ponty, Gayle Moran, Narmada Michael Waldron, Ralph’s Armstrong … just stunning and overwhelming. It topped the shows I saw with the original band, if such a thing is possible.
Hey man, thank you so much for this. It’s been a long time since I’ve ever thought about this music. First time I heard it was my first semester freshman year of undergrad ‘75-‘76 my roommate introduced me to this orchestra. I had to go back and listen to it again after this and bringing back many memories. Most likely inspired me to buy Cobham’s solo album with his humongous yellow plexiglass double drum kit. Now I’m gonna have to look that up. Cheers, mate.
I commented on Trilogy off the live album was great. But the lack of better words, the simplicity of "You Know, You Know" with the grove leaves me speechless trying to describe on how great of a song that is and how deeply that song has effected me over the years. That song is one of those timeless pieces that ages gracefully but never gets old . There are not many songs as beautiful as that one. Thank you for the marvelous breakdown you have done on such a great band .
Prior to Mahavishnu John recorded an album called Devotion. On there, a piece called Marbles, later called Open Country is my all time favourite McL composition. Second best is The Noonward Race. I was also age 14 back in 1972. You kind of had to have been there to appreciate what they did.
I couldn't agree more! Lila's Dance is also my favorite tune off Visions. My number two MO tune would be One Word because everyone has a solo spot and of course because of the insanely fast unison lines. By the way, it's no coincidence that Dance Of Maya and Lila's Dance both have the word "dance" in them. I think it was John's way of hinting that they have the bluesy 20/8 section in common. Lila's Dance is in 5/4 but the unison lines representing the chorus are in 7/8. Therefore the track has three different time signatures.
I love Inner Worlds!
Me too. It’s blend of joy and intensity is astounding.
Celestial Terrestrial Commuters is my absolute favorite tune. It's on the Birds of Fire album. 2cd favorite is MO 2.0's Hymn to Him.
Great choice! Lila's Dance transcends genre!
Oh - for those who care about this sort of thing - I created a "Miles Out" patch for the Roland VG-99 guitar processor because I loved that insane track. Just in case someone wants to do a cover someday.
I agree with your overall picks for tunes but for me it is Dance of the Maya. I'm a good bit older than you and I came from the Mahavishnu Orchestra via My Goals Beyond. I was in love with that album and when Inner Mounting Flame came out I rushed down to my record store and brought it home. I remember to this day putting the needle on the first track "Meeting of the Spirits"....Whoa... I wasn't expecting the barrage that followed. I had the good fortune a short time later to see the band live. One of my top three concerts of the 70's. I prefer Dance of the Maya for its rawness.
Fantastic stuff, Andy - raconteurium in excelsis! Great choice too. I think I'd go with 'One Word' from MO mark 1.
I've always had a particular fondness for Celestial Terrestrial Commuters. While there are definitely more adventurous cuts, it has great top lines, and would be the first song I played to the uninitiated as it displays the palette they're working with well.
ditto to that selection ... what a delightful little tune in 19 for the uninitiated :)
This piece was included in John first album Extrapolation in 69 as Binky’s Beam
Trilogy off of the live album "From Nothingness to Eternity"
Dance of Maya, Lila's Dance, Hope, Electric Dreams, Guardian Angels. Ive taught myself to play all of the above and currently working on Lila's Dance! 😎
Great video!!! The best MO tune is the best performance of any tune they did.
I'LL JUST MAKE IT SHORT.RIGHT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD,"HYMN TO HIM"!The fact is that there are so many great compositions & musicians,it would take time & words that I don't have time for right now.Thanks.
The first track I ever heard was because I happened to play side 2 first. Vital Transformation. I clearly remember where, when and with whom it happened. I was in 10th grade. That drum intro by Billy blew my mind, I had never heard a guitar solo like that. I am still partial to that song, perhaps because it popped my cherry and blew my ming first.
_Dream_ from the live album gives you the essence of the band.
From the Vision album my choice is _Ethernity’s Breath Pt 1._ Narada Michael Walden’s drumming is not of this world.
But I am going to cheat and smuggle in _The Life Divine_ from the McLaughlin/Santana album Love Devotion Surrender which is not a MO song but it’s my absolute favorite of everything John McLaughlin has done.
The two guitar solos are pure meditation.
I played birds of fire and inner mounting flame hundreds of times. I heard Billy first with dreams. Moving to the Fibes double bass kit was groundbreaking. I saw them in 1974? , Billy was playing the clear Fibes, amazing. The TH-cam post have been really entertaining.
The first album was in your face, the second just incredible and by the time Visions of the Emerald Beyond came out, I lost it, I was sold...been a fan of McLaughlin ever since. The first six or seven tracks of Vision are as close to music perfection as I have ever heard. Pastoral and Faith are just McLaughlin at its best.
Now let's talk about "ONE WORD".HELLO,is this thing on!The produced version,as are many,is the best because,in the live versions they tend to show off & speed them up.Which,I like also because they also show they're creativity & improvising.The best live version/video is their debut on IN CONCERT,& that drum solo is my favorite & very inventive plus,the young crowd going wild as they probably didn't know what train just hit them!😅
BTW, There are no words to describe Jan Hammer and his contribution to keyboard players and modern music. He deserves the highest accolades and it is fantastic that you are such a proponent of his music and contribution. thanks again!
It is my understanding that McLaughlin and Hammer could not get along. This is what i understand is the reason the first band split up. I might be wrong on this observation but this is what i heard thru the grapevine. Just my 2 cents.
Lila's Dance, Open Country Joy, You Know You Know & on & on!
Birds of fire for me from the first listen as a teenager .... chamber music.... perfection
Great video mate!!
My favorite five pieces of music from the Mahavisnu Orchestra are Dream, Noonward Race, Sister Andrea, Miles Beyond and Dance of the Maya in that order. Although Dream is my favorite either Miles Beyond or Noonward Race is what I would give to someone giving MO a first listen and what ultimately captures what they are about.
Can't really disagree with that choice. Just BTW, on one of his appearances on desert island discs George Martin chose Smile Of The Beyond from Apocalypse.
I'm with George Martin , for pure ,beautiful , spiritual meditave music : "Smile of the Beyond" from Apocalypse is my choice😊
Wow great watch I couldn’t believe you came up with my all time favourite track. When I listen to it , it stirs something inside me I just can’t begin to explain. Best I can do is say a deep feeling of embedded memories some could be before I even existed in this life. The power of music so glad for such talent and it lives today.
Lila's Dance and You know you know. Otherwise, Guardian Angels. These are the songs I learned because I love the soul.
Mine has been Birds of Fire. As a 17 year old I was in awe.
A mere 51 years ago and my mind didn’t change.
I well remember playing the LP loud and proud.
If the question is which is the first track you would turn someone on to it has to be Dance of Maya because there is more arrangement in it. Starts out with just piano and guitar , “ah that’s an odd rythm but nice”, then the drums come in with a totally unexpected beat, and then you’re “alright”, then the violin comes in with a totally new layer and you’re thinking this is something….. and only then does the nuclear explosion detonate.
BIRDS OF FIRE ! followed by DREAM and on 3rd place LILA' S DANCE
The Mahavishnu Orchestra was truly ahead of its time in the fusion realm and Im talking about other bands like RTF and Weathereport we had a wonderful sound that was unique and genuine from each group John McLaughlin was a true guitar pioneer from his days with Miles Davis to his 1971 release on phase 4 records And The Dragon Ate Your Mother 👍🏽💯😎🤘🏽💯🎵🎵🎵
'Lila's Dance' PS I made my choice right from the start of watching the video ! (lol ) That song is pure beautiful genius !
My favorite solo by John McLaughlin is the one he did on the song " A Life Divine" on the LD&S album with Carlos. Incredible along with fantastic tone. Another is the Pentatonic funk groove he did toward the end of Vision is a Naked Sword. He played that through a Mutron Phase shifter and a lot of compression. I love the stereo panning on it.
You know you know is my favourite. The rest are impressive more than they are enjoyable for me.
Can't help seeing all Mahavishnu up to and including "Adventures of Radioland" as ONE inseparable item!
I saw them live in the mid-80s on the 'Mahavishnu' album tour and thought they were amazing. Jonas Hellborg's bass playing I remember as being particularly outstanding and McLaughlin's use of the Synclavier system gave it all a weird, spacey vibe that I really liked.
@splifftachyon4420 splendid! Me too Hammersmith 84. Mclaughlin with synclavier. Hellborg on a double-necked bass. I was impressed by Mitch Forman on keys, Biil Evans great on sax but i didn't think drummer Gottlieb, good as he is, was the perfect choice for that particular setup!
Great band, saw them live with the original group then with Carlos and the Love, Devotion tour. ... I always thought John was so smart to put this band together and record a year after Bitches Brew. ... I remember that, at the same time I listened to this, I was also listening to CS&N and Music From Big Pink. ... That was an amazing period.
Birds of Fire blew my mind, my first purchase. First saw them on a TV show playing live and thought WTF. Must get an album and bought the rest since. It really is a hard choice to pick an introduction, but definitive track of theirs for someone. Short and concise but not too over the top or just give them Birds on Fire and say listen to the full album as I can't pick just one track.😅 .
I don't think their is a definitive choice but yours was a good suggestion. 👍😎
Holy cow!!! Same here!!! It was a late night live music tv show and I was stunned! I went out the next day and bought Birds of Fire!!!
I'm going for Meeting Of The Sprits. There is no piece of music in 1971 that compares to it in. The unique composition is equal to the instrumentation. There's a rawness that maybe through the low budget production (this album needs a remix) that they never captured again for me.
I play this to people who've never heard of MO and they're always blown away.
Those chords at the start! It's like 'move out the way everyone...'
I saw the Mahavishnu Orchestra with Santana and Weather Report in Cleveland on a 4th of july! I learned about John from the Miles Davis album Right Off. Our art teacher in JR. High played it and we could not believe this guitar! We sure knew about Jimi Hendrix and Maybe even Led Zepplin and the Doors and Black Sabbath but John McLaughlin blew our minds! :) I'm 68 now!
The same for me … until i listened to Allan with Soft Machine…. Sorry John
"Dream" is my fave,as is "Between Nothingness & Eternity". "Lila`s Dance" a close 2nd. You forgot to mention Jerry Goodman! & it`s "Awakening" off I.M.F. I love the way Cobham plays on I.M.F. on the smaller kit,the bass & snare drum in particular sound great.As you rightly said,Narada`s drum sound on "Visions" sounds awesome,Gretsch kit I think. Thankyou for the talk on this legend band.
"Smile of the Beyond" from Apocalypse for pure ,beautiful , spiritual meditave music is my choice😊 I love it❤
This is brilliant commentary by which we can go deeper into learn the Mahavishnu Orchestra. I still suggest that the pinnacle of the 1st album, Inner Mounting Flame, is the 1st track, Meeting of the Spirits. It may not have the rhythmic complexity of some of the other tracks, but to me it has both a progressive and a fundamental musical appeal as well.
Greatest band ever in their genre. Have to think what was the best I'm not sure. Thanks for the discussion Andy. John McLaughlin devotee from Australia.
Dance of Maya is off the charts. Good selection of first album
Birds Of Fire, Eternity's Breath parts one and 2 etc . Yes
Mahavishnu Orchestra -- the ultimate dance band! Who knew? :)
I did listen to the end, tried to listen to the whole thing at 2x but had to slow it down near the end. Off to listen to some tracks. Wonder what you think of Jimmy Herring playing this music.
3 minutes into Emerald and I have visions of Zappa.
Birds of Fire is still my favorite album!
Saw McLaughlin with Shakti in a small performance stage at University of Washington in the ‘80’s … it was magical!!!
Yep, spot-on there Andy.